Slick roads cause dozens of accidents
A small snow squall and dropping temperatures sent a number of cars sliding off very icy Nashua-area roads Thursday evening.
Police responded to dozens of minor accidents, though none reported responding to accidents that caused major injuries.
Nashua police responded to somewhere between 10-20 minor accidents because of the road conditions, Nashua police Sgt. Jeff Maher said. He didn’t have the exact number available Thursday night.
“There were a lot of cars off the road,” he said.
The cars started slipping and sliding around 5:30 p.m., when a short snow squall hit the region and temperatures dropped, freezing the roads. As quickly as it began, though, the roads began clearing up again.
“DOT was out there very quickly and got those roads back to wet conditions. I think that helped alleviate a lot of the problems,” New Hampshire State Police Sgt. Dean Holston said.
Troopers responded to a handful of minor accidents on the F.E. Everett Turnpike in Nashua and Merrimack.
Icy roads caused a series of crashes on Route 3-A in Litchfield. A 2000 Honda Civic driven by William Gehan, 66, of Nashua, slid from the southbound lane and off the opposite side of the road near Wilson Farms.
In short order, three more cars, a 1998 Toyota Corolla driven by Laura Zube, 32, of Hudson, a 1999 Mercury Sable driven by Melnoba Henry, 32, of Nashua, and a 2004 Chevy Tahoe driven by Teresa Planty, 45, of Litchfield, slid in the same area, across the road, each bumping into the car ahead of it, according to Litchfield police Officer Heath Savage.
The road was closed for about an hour and Henry, the driver of the 1999 Mercury Sable, was transported to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center for observation, Savage said.
In Milford, police responded to 12 accidents in less than two hours starting around 5:30 p.m. One accident involved a driver who slid into a car parked on the Oval, according to Milford police Capt. Stephen Toom.
Toom said none of the accidents caused major injuries or significant traffic tie-ups.
“Fortunately we were able to get to them pretty quickly,” he said. “The road conditions were horrible during that time. They were very icy. Some parts of the road were like an ice rink.”
Merrimack Fire Capt. Shawn Allison said fire personnel were called to a couple of accidents between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., when roads froze over, and that Merrimack police responded to several more. The accidents slowed down when public works crews treated the roads with sand and salt, Allison said.
Merrimack and Hudson police weren’t immediately available to comment.
Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com.
